#BookReview The Man Who Didn’t Call @TheRosieWalsh @MantleBooks

The Man Who Didn’t Call is a book dedicated to ‘anyone who has found themselves floored by the absence of a telephone call’

We’ve all been there…waiting by the phone, checking our messages in the hope that we may have missed it….but what happens when that call never comes? What happens when in our heart we know something is just not right?

Rosie Walsh takes this idea and brings the reader on an emotional journey with Sarah and Eddie, in this her first book under her own name.

The Man Who Didn’t Call is published in hardback on June 14th and currently available in ebook format with Mantle.

Please do read on for my thoughts…

About the Book:

Imagine you meet a man, spend six glorious days together, and fall in love. And it’s mutual: you’ve never been so certain of anything.

So when he leaves for a long-booked holiday and promises to call from the airport, you have no cause to doubt him.

But he doesn’t call.

Your friends tell you to forget him, but you know they’re wrong: something must have happened; there must be a reason for his silence.

What do you do when you finally discover you’re right? That there is a reason — and that reason is the one thing you didn’t share with each other?

The truth.

My Review:

First off can I say I learnt something new before I started this review. The Man Who Didn’t Call is published in the US with a completely different title….Ghosted. Now I have to admit, I had absolutely no idea what that meant, so I did a little googling. For those of you, possibly of a certain generation like me, who are not familiar with the term, dictionary.com define it as ‘the practice of suddenly ending all contact with a person without explanation, especially in a romantic relationship.’

Sarah is back from the US visiting her parents, as she does annually, when she meets Eddie. The chemistry is instant as they spend a few blissful days enjoying each others company and falling in love. Eddie has pre-booked a holiday to Spain and Sarah will need to return to her other life is LA, but for these short few precious days, they become completely immersed in each others company.

As their separation date comes close, they decide not to say their goodbyes at the airport, instead just to pretend the other is stepping out for something. Neither has any concerns about not seeing the other again. This is love, this is the real thing…

Once Eddie departs, Sarah continues on with life. All is fine until she realises Eddie has not contacted her, as they had agreed. His phone seems to be switched off and he has vanished off social media. Sarah is convinced herself that something terrible has happened, but her friends, both in the UK and the US, think she may be over exaggerating. There probably is a perfectly reasonable explanation…isn’t there?

Sarah operates a charity in the US that she co-founded with her now ex-husband Reuben. Between them they assist with the medical care of children by entertaining the sick and making their stay, in what can be a very frightening environment, that little bit easier. While working in LA, Sarah is strong, she is competent. She has a very close friend, Jenni who is always there for her. In the UK she has her two childhood friends, Jo and Tommy by her side. All want what’s best for Sarah and all truly believe that she should walk away from Eddie and get on with her life. but something just keeps her clinging onto the hope that it is all a dreadful mistake and that Eddie is out there, somewhere, waiting for her.

I really liked how Rosie Walsh brings us the whole picture. We get to know Jenni and her husband Javier and the troubles they themselves are having. We are introduced to Jo and Tommy and their, too, complicated lives. These personable insights into the lives of Sarah’s friends gives a sense of completeness to the novel, a sense of real life.

After a few weeks it’s time for Sarah to move back to the US but her heart is no longer in her work and in her life there. All her thoughts now lie with Eddie and eventually, after a passing remark from Tommy, Sarah realises that some secrets are not meant to kept and the time may have come for the truth to be revealed.

In the latter part of the book we do get Eddie’s story, so this is not a book that leaves you hanging on until the end. With each nugget of information we get, the jigsaw starts to come together as Sarah and Eddie’s pasts are revealed.

The Man Who Didn’t Call is a book that does deal with the whole notion of being ghosted but also it reveals to us all how we can never escape our past. I got completely caught up in Sarah and Eddie’s story, their love for one another and the heart-breaking journey they were forced to take. The Man Who Didn’t Call is a very charming love story, with perfectly developed characters, that will pluck at your heart strings and may draw a few tears. It will sweep you along on a roller-coaster of emotions, but you will have to read it yourself to find out if true love really can conquer all…..